A conspiracy of unprecedented scope and influence had taken hold of the United States.

Only one man had the courage to do something about it.

He launched an investigation.

He subpoenaed witnesses.

He made it known that if no one else in the United States would stand up to the conspiracy, he would.

He charged that figures at the highest levels of government were obstructing his investigation.

Some of them, he alleged, were implicated in the conspiracy itself.

And who was the one person at the top of the chain of command who could reveal the truth to the American people?

Why, their own friendly president.

All he needed to crack the case was information in the government's very own vaults -- FBI files classified and locked away from the very public the government was supposed to be serving.

The President could release these files and let the truth be known.

Why was the President covering up for the conspirators?

Even more sinister was the Central Intelligence Agency.

This lone crusader for justice raged against the CIA, noting its virtually unlimited capabilities for secrecy.

But he found that the more he waged war on the forces of conspiracy and secrecy, the more the government and the media assaulted him.

He fought back, denouncing journalists for aiding and abetting the status quo and hinting that they too might be part of the conspiracy that threatened to lead the United States down the road to fascism.

Though he lost his case in the end, he remains to this day a beacon of hope in the dark landscape of American decay and despair.

His courage in the face of the longest odds and his unwavering commitment to the truth make him truly a hero for our time.

[I]n 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy asserted before the Tydings Senate Sub-Committee that his celebrated charge of eighty-one card-carrying Communists working in the State Department was supported by classified evidence in FBI files, and he vehemently demanded to know why the Truman administration was keeping secret vital evidence that would show the extent of the Communist conspiracy in the State Department. Taking unprecedented action, President Truman waived executive privilege and ordered the files made available to the Tydings Committee. When it became abundantly clear that these files were concealing no evidence to support McCarthy's charges, the Senator simply declared that the files had been "raped and rifled" before they were shown to the Committee and continued to demand that the "real files" be released. The government, McCarthy charged, was using its powers of secrecy to conceal a gigantic conspiracy involving Communists and fellow travelers. In his campaign against the forces of secrecy, McCarthy also attacked the CIA as "the worst situation of all," and consistently denounced the news media for abetting the conspiracy by suppressing the "truth" and attacking him.